The River Path The River Path
Bridges of the Stour
These bridges had speaking countenances. Every projection in each was worn down to obtuseness partly by weather, more by friction from generations of loungers, whose toes and heels had from year to year made restless movements against these parapets, as they stood there meditating on the aspects of affairs.
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
The bridges in the Stour catchment vary enormously - from Sturminster's grand medieval Town Bridge, the little packhorse bridges at Tarrant Monkton and Fifehead Neville, the suspension footbridge at Canford to hundreds of modest bridges such as that at Fontmell Magna.
Lists of scheduled bridges can be obtained from local planning authorities. Over 30 bridges are listed in north Dorset alone.
Jo Thomas has written about her study of the geology of the Stour's bridges - you can read BUILDING BRIDGES here
Often bridges are best seen from the river bank. At Holwell, the County Council have made a path down to the Caundle Brook so that the beautiful Cornford Bridge (below right) can be seen face on.
'Bridges' by David McFetrich and Jo Parsons (Dovecote Press, 1998) is a wonderful introduction to Dorset's bridges.
On October 4th 1999, Mill Bridge at Fontmell Magna in Dorset was the first bridge to be named as part of Common Ground's 'Naming of Brook and Bridge' project which aims to put the name of the rivers or brooks on the bridges which cross them, proposing that each river valley should have its own letter form, a kind of signature, so that you can tell which catchment you are in from the lettering on the bridges. Subsequently, other bridges have been named including French Mill bridge near Shaftesbury and a bridge over the Key Brook near West Orchard
You can read more about this on www.commonground.org.uk
